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Chaffee County rockslide kills five family members

A Flight for Life helicopter rises above backed up traffic Monday in south-central Colorado. Roads were closed as emergency personnel worked to aid hikers trapped after a rock slide on the trail to Agnes Vaille Falls. (James Redmond, The Mountain Mail)

NATHROP — A deadly cascade of boulders poured over Chaffee County's popular Agnes Vaille Falls midmorning Monday, burying and killing five people and injuring a 13-year-old girl.

The bodies were seen but not recovered.

"They are in bad shape. They were rolled over by boulders as big as these cars," said a somber Chaffee County Sheriff Pete Palmer, shortly after hearing from the county coroner who toured the scree field at the base of the picturesque falls Monday afternoon.

"He's seen the condition of the bodies," Palmer said. "There is no one alive up there."

Palmer said 13-year-old Gracie Johnson was airlifted to Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora with a broken leg.

Gracie Johnson The Mountain Mail

Palmer said the girl was hiking with members of her family, who include her father, Dwayne Johnson, and mom, Dawna Johnson, a track coach at Buena Vista High School.

The sheriff declined to identify the dead, but Monday night vigils at Buena Vista schools were attended by dozens of mourning community members. Johnson is a student at McGinnis Middle School in Buena Vista.

Geologic engineers from the Climax Mine toured the rock slide atop the popular hiking trail — up Chalk Creek on the southern flank of Mount Princeton — Monday and deemed the area too unsafe for a late afternoon body recovery.

"The terrain is steep and it's rocky, and its very dangerous now because it is so unstable," Chaffee County Undersheriff John Spezze said.

Rescuers plan to enter the area Tuesday afternoon. Spezze said rocks were still tumbling down the slope as rescuers raced up to the falls earlier Monday. The trail is roughly 8 miles west of Nathrop on County Road 162.

"The slope itself started moving downhill," he said. "We had to get them out of there because the slope was sliding, and it was so unstable. It is very loose, rocky terrain. These engineers, they work in a mine and ... they tell us this is a very dangerous area. It's going to be dangerous tomorrow."

A rockslide triggered from above Agnes Vaille Falls on the southern slope of Mt. Princeton buried and killed five people on Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. (Jason Blevins, The Denver Post)

Spezze and Palmer said it appeared rocks from a cliff shelf above the falls released, triggering a massive rock slide. The area had endured heavy recent rains, which engineers believe played a role in loosening the large boulders, Spezze said.

"There are rocks in there the engineers estimate are 100 tons," Spezze said. "I've never seen something like this."

Spezze said his office would ask the U.S. Forest Service to permanently close the Agnes Vaille Falls trail, which is listed on local trail maps as a popular, short family hike.

"From what we are hearing from the engineers, public safety dictates that we have to ask them to close that trailhead," he said. "We need to address that issue and make sure that doesn't happen again."

A witness who saw the rock slide raced down the trail — roughly 1½ miles — and called for help about 11 a.m. Monday. The witness said five people were buried under a wall of boulders.

The first responders on scene were the Chaffee County Sheriff's office, Chaffee County Emergency Medical Services, Chaffee County Fire Protection District, Salida Fire Department, Buena Vista Fire Department, U.S. Forest Service and three Flight for Life helicopters, according to the sheriff's office

A temporary flight restriction of 2 miles was put in place around the slide area to avoid accidents with rescue choppers and media choppers, Cotten said.

The Colorado Department of Corrections said that the Buena Vista K-9 unit was sent to help.

The falls is a short distance from the Chalk Creek Campground on 11430 County Road 197A, near Nathrop. The campground, which Chalk Creek runs through, and the falls, are just off of U.S. 285.

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